Beauty and the Beast
by bananafrappe
Summary: "Whatever the circumstance, and no matter the cost, I know one thing: everyone deserves someone who believes in them."
1. Eternal Night

Beauty and the Beast

_Hello! Welcome to those that have managed to find themselves here (most likely by accident), and I would like to add that it is an honor for you to be here. Yes, I did it again; I've started another story while I'm supposed to be working on the ones I already have up. Never you mind that, I'm coming along on my other updates splendidly, and they should be up soonish. So… Let me introduce my new story; this is my own personal take on the classic love story, Beauty and the Beast. This chapter is basically like the stained glass explanation of Beast's fall, except explained in greater detail. I'm using our own Gaara of the Sand for my Beast… originally I was going to use Sasuke, but then I remembered that I owed Gaara-kun for making him the third wheel in Sasuke and Me. So he gets to have a feel good story all to himself. Beauty is, if you look up at the information bar up there, going to be Sakura, and you will also notice up there that the rating is M. This is for copious amounts of gore and violence, bad language, and an undetermined amount of sexual content. It's merely insinuated in this chapter, but I'm unsure if I'm going to include anything in the later updates. Maybe, maybe not. Anyway… read on, if you so wish!_

_Disclaimer: The insinuations to the motion picture __Beauty and the Beast__ that you will find herein are not original ideas of my own and belong to Walt Disney Pictures. The Naruto characters also do not belong to me, and are the sole ownership of Masashi Kishimoto._

* * *

Chapter One

The headless corpse dropped to its knees, blood from the fresh wound gushing from its neck as it keeled over fully to the ground. The body's dismembered head rolled across the smooth wooden floor, coming to a rest at the feet of the man that had caused its untimely removal.

Bright, attractive jade green eyes lined completely with sleepless black bruising stared down at the head's shocked expression with amusement, a feral grin curving thin lips over sharp canines. Long, elegant fingers reached down and grasped the loose, dirty hair on its scalp, lifting the object easily and bringing it up to chest level, more drops of bright crimson blood dripping on to the man's already stained haori.

Flicking a strand of brick red hair from his eyes with his free hand, the Nidaime Kazekage tossed the head carelessly into the arms of the woman standing trembling at the side of the corpse. She caught it hastily, the tears beading in her eyes threatening to spill over as she looked with horror at all that was left of her husband.

She stumbled backwards, whimpering in terror, as her spouse's murderer descended the dais he had been standing on slowly, and he grinned widely at the obvious display of fear before deigning the dead man's question with a response. "That is your answer, peasant. Be grateful that I am leaving you _your_ life and the rest of that miserable spit of land that you call home considering the insolence that you have paid me. Now get out of my sight before I consider_ raising_ the taxes on your crop, much less _lowering_ them. Be gone!"

She bowed to the ground hurriedly, clutching the head close to her chest and trying her best to not sob out loud as the tears rolled down her cheeks. "H-hai, Kazekage-sama." She muttered before backing out of the room, the two men standing guard at the shoji giving her sympathetic gazes where their lord couldn't see.

Sabaku no Gaara watched her go with pitilessly entertained eyes, rubbing his fingers together and relishing the feeling of the thick blood. Kami, how he loved it… the demon inside of him crowed for more bloodshed and he himself craved to snuff out another life, but there had to be someone left at the end of the day to till his fields and cook his meals. Since he could not take his pleasure from more slaughter, perhaps he could see to his other needs for a while… his bed had grown cold the past few weeks. He licked his fingers lingeringly as he considered this, curling his tongue lovingly around the stained digits while leaning his other hand against the large, sand filled gourd that stood next to his raised chair, the surface smooth and flawless under his touch.

He snorted softly, turning away from the chamber he stood in. "No more audiences today. Clean this up and do not disturb me for any reason for the next three days. Disobedience means immediate death." he intoned, waving a hand at the guards looking over their shoulders at him, and walked out of the room through the shoji behind his chair without waiting for an answer.

The guards looked after him cautiously for a few moments, making sure that he was really gone, before letting the neutral expressions on their faces drop, sadness over their lord's curse showing plainly as they made their way to the waist high pile of bodies that lay beside the dais, walking through a slowly progressing puddle of blood with sticky sounding steps.

Twenty-four more farmers and common folk… when would the demon be satiated?

The Kazekage's hakama swished menacingly as he stalked down the corridor, the silence surrounding him resounding with fear and reluctant respect. He couldn't help but smirk as a servant came out of one of the rooms in front of him, saw him coming, and instantly dropped to her knees and bowed, literally shaking in horrified anticipation. If this had occurred this morning he would have crushed her into an irreparable ball, but now he simply ignored her, walking past and continuing on his way. Now that he had decided on his new pastime, he would not be diverted until he found an acceptable whore to fuck.

He had just turned a corner, gaze locked on his geisha's living quarters, when he was hailed by a loud annoying voice that he had been hoping to avoid being subjected to. "Hey, otouto-chan!" Gaara stopped, looking over his shoulder antagonistically. "I've told you not to call me that, Temari nee-san." he uttered flatly, glaring at the sandy blonde female that approached him, and she merely grinned back at him in response, snapping open a handheld fan and waving it front of her face dramatically as another person joined her; a tall man with red war paint streaked across his face, his ever present puppet slung over one shoulder.

"Oh, lighten up. She's never going to stop calling you that, so you might as well get used to it." The man said, leaning against the wall and propping his bandage wrapped parcel on the floor, and Temari bowed sarcastically in acknowledgement, the height of her kimono becoming evident with the motion. The movement attracted Gaara's eye, and his scowl deepened. "Nii-san, how many times have I told her not to wear such atrociously revealing garments in my home?"

The painted man, more formally known as Kankuro, shrugged, playing with the spikes of hair emerging from his puppet's head idly, and Gaara finally turned around, facing his siblings with barely veiled contempt. "If you continue to dress in this manner, Temari, I will never find a man willing to take you as his wife. You would be dismissed as a slut, and I will not allow such dishonor to stain my family name. Dress appropriately or, as head of the family, I will disown you."

Temari rolled her eyes, making a talking motion with her hand, but everything in her posture showed that she would acquiesce to her younger brother's demand, at least when she would be around him. Her eyes scanned Gaara's bloodstained clothes without surprise, and the man who stood behind her shook his head in disappointment. "I heard that you were seeing the rice farmers today… when is this going to end, otouto? You cannot continue to slaughter like this without consequence. The people need your help, not your cruelty. If you would just…"

Gaara's eyes narrowed and his silhouette started to shimmer threateningly. "Do not assume to tell me how to run my city, Kankuro nii-san… if you didn't want me to be in this position, you should have gotten up off of your ass and told father." He turned his back on them then, dismissing them with a flick of his fingers. "Leave me. I have no wish to continue this conversation." Temari's eyes flashed, and without thinking she tilted her fan and slashed it through the air, sending a sharp gust of wind across the space between herself and her younger brother with enough force to knock him forward one step.

She ignored the furious stiffening of his shoulders as he caught himself, shouting at his back in incensed fervor. "You can't do this to the city! How can you not care about what happens to it? Gaara, you have to see what…"

*_**smack**_*

Temari's complaints were instantly silenced as she was knocked to the ground by the severity of the backhanded blow, her hand covering her mouth in shock as a trickle of blood leaked from her split lip. Gaara stood over her, eyes glowing eerily, while he reached down and grabbed the woman at his feet by the hair. She let out a muffled cry of pain as he forcibly pulled her to her feet. Kankuro started to move forward, but Gaara shot him a heated look that froze him in his tracks before shoving Temari against the adjacent wall, the thin wood and paper surface creaking uneasily.

He leaned close to her, hissing in his rage. "Do not address me so informally, Temari nee-san… I am your Kazekage and your superior, and you _will_ show respect to me. And as for your foolhardy action, do not think that because you are my sister I will hesitate to have you executed for attacking me. You will be excused this time, but if you so much as look at me wrong again I will cut your fucking head off _myself_. Now, you are to retire to your chambers immediately, and I don't want to see or hear from you for two weeks. Thereafter we will meet and discuss your immediate marriage to a man of my choosing or I will be cutting you off from the family and you will no longer be welcome in my home or my city. Kankuro nii-san, make sure the arrangements are made. We shall speak of this in three days' time. Go _now_."

Then he shoved her from his person and into the arms of his brother, turning his back and walking away with his head held up proudly. The shoji of his geisha's living quarters snapped shut after him, and two pairs of eyes watched them close with relief. Neither had been sure whether or not they would live through this encounter and luckily, they had.

Kankuro looked down at the tear filled eyes of his sister with pity. "Are you alright, nee-san? He hit you harder than usual…" She nodded, brushing her watering eyes with her trailing sleeve bravely. "I'm fine, otouto… I just… I don't… how much longer can this go on before the people revolt? You saw the audience chamber…"

Kankuro shook his head, supporting Temari as he gently began walking her down the hallway. "Someday he is going to realize that what he is doing is wrong. I would blame the demon inside of him for his insatiable bloodlust, but… he loves it as much as it does. I wish that he could see past himself, and I hope he does before he gets hurt, but I don't know if anything besides experience will teach him." He said monotonously, despair layering his words as he helped his sister to her room.

* * *

Outside the terror ridden manor of the Kazekage of Sunagakure, three masked ninja crouched in the rain sodden branches of a large willow tree, eyes trained on the two men digging a massive hole beside a large mound of corpses. The tallest ninja, obviously the leader, flicked a hand sign at his comrades, and all three disappeared faster than what seemed humanly possible.

They reappeared outside the gate to the grounds, standing together in a tightly knit circle. There was a heavy silence between them, coated with worry and concern. The leader spoke first, breaking the quiet moment almost reluctantly. "Hokage-sama was right to suspect that something was amiss in Suna." The bird masked ninja, voice identifying him to be male, drawled lazily, leaning against the wall beside him. The slightly heavyset nin, a pig mask obscuring his identity, nodded decisively. "Totally. There had to be at least two dozen bodies today… yesterday there were only fifteen. Our hypothesis about the plague must be wrong, Raven."

The leader gave a heavy sigh. "It would seem so, Pig… how troublesome. Farmers and townsfolk have been disappearing at an alarming rate ever since the Shodaime stepped down and gave his youngest son the title… then there are all the mass graves and the rumors of a demon living here… Perhaps there is a murderer on the loose in the Kazekage's own household. There doesn't appear to be any sort of uproar within the manor, however… it makes me suspicious. Any other information, Cat?"

The petite nin that he called out to shook her head, placing a hand on her hip as her long blonde ponytail swung with the motion. "That was all I could find out from the townsfolk's gossip. They appear to be too afraid to mention it directly." The tall man shook his head, pulling on his spiked ponytail agitatedly. "What a drag… Pig, I need you to send a message to the Hokage. Inform him of our progress and discoveries and receive orders for either a continuance or a call home. Cat, return to the village and see if you can find someone who knows what is going on inside the Kazekage's manor. That woman that came out earlier would be preferable if you can find her. I am going to see what I can find out about the Kazekage himself. Something doesn't ring true with all I've heard about the man, and it makes me uneasy. Meet back at the safe point in two hours with your findings."

"Hai, commander." Both of them said before vanishing again, leaving the tall man alone by the wall. He sighed, scratching the back of his head and looking up at the clouded and raining sky, before making a sequence of signs with his hands and disappearing as well.

* * *

Gaara slept little to none anymore (he had the Shukaku to thank for that), so when he heard the whispered conversation steadily growing closer to his chambers, he growled in annoyance and began to untangle himself from the bare legs and arms of the three women he had taken to bed with him only three hours previous, intent on discovering the reason for the disturbance. He had specifically instructed no one to bother him with _anything_; this had better be pretty fucking good.

The two men jumped out of their skins when the shoji leading into his room snapped to the side, revealing a bare chested and angrily glaring Gaara. Both immediately stopped their bickering as he closed the doors behind him and approached them, the bloodstained hakama he had been wearing earlier that day hanging low on his hips.

"I know that I told you imbeciles not to disturb me…" he muttered darkly, stalking nearer to the rapidly fearfully shrinking men, and the braver of the two spoke quickly in hopes of saving his life. "Kazekage-sama, a traveling samurai has requested permission to stay the night within the manor. I told her that you were accepting no more visitors today, especially this late in the evening, and to leave immediately, but she insisted that you know her and would wish to see her. My companion said it would be best to take the matter up with you, and I was just trying to remind him of your warning when your grace approached us."

One of Gaara's eyebrows rose, and he turned his gaze to the other man, who looked about ready to lose control over his bladder. "Is this true?" he asked menacingly, and the man gulped heavily and loudly. "Yes, lord, but…" He didn't get a chance to say another word as he suddenly found himself without a throat, his raw and torn larynx held between Gaara's now bloody fingers. He smirked as he watched his servant try to breathe before collapsing at his feet and slowly suffocating, hands clawing at the air around him.

When he had stopped struggling and the light left his eyes, Gaara scoffed and dropped the dead flesh beside the corpse, stepping over him and making the other man flinch back in apprehension. "I will handle our untimely guest. Take care of this disgraceful mess before I return, or you will join him." He said as he strode down the hallway, wiping his hand on the cloth covering his legs.

The halls of the enormous house were quiet at this time of night, anyone still awake keeping their activities silent so as not to disturb their Kazekage. Wavering lights from candles or lanterns shone through the rice paper slats decorating the walls and doors, giving a serene façade to a place where horror ruled. The rain that had been falling all day had started coming down even harder within the last few minutes, the heavy patters on the wooden roof vying for dominance over the footsteps echoing dully from the walls as the increasingly despondent lord of the house lengthened his stride, mind calmly going over what his guard had told him.

A female samurai… they were few and far between, often daughters of rich lords or extremely powerful landowners who wished to take up the mantle of the warrior. Still rarer were _traveling_ female samurai; she must either be very brave, very skilled, or very stupid. In any case, she had lied to his still surviving (at least for the moment) servant; he had never met a female samurai in his life. It was a tremendous dishonor to turn a samurai away from your door, not to mention the bad luck it would bring, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He should have been enjoying round three of his alone time with his favorite playthings, but he was being forced to deal with a nuisance that should have easily been taken care of by his staff.

If it hadn't been an incredibly horrid gaffe to kill a samurai without a real reason he would have, and gladly.

He burst through the shoji into his audience chamber, eyes sweeping over the now clean floor and to the woman standing patiently at the end of the room. She was soaking wet, cracked and decrepit armor dripping large muddy puddles onto the expensive wooden floor where she stood, her chin held high as she considered the man approaching her. Great battle scars marred the tanned and wrinkled skin of her face and hands, the long grey hair tied loosely at the base of her neck betraying her age as being at least twice his. He could smell the stench of squalor and ill-kempt hygiene from across the room, and he wrinkled his nose as he stopped before her.

"Pardon my intrusion on your home, and I beg forgiveness for drawing you from your bed at such an hour, Kazekage-sama…" the old woman croaked, bowing creakily at the waist. "But I have found myself without a place to stay and the weather prevents me from camping outside as I usually would. I ask only for a room for the night, and it is with great humility that I ask for it."

Gaara scoffed, looking her over with contempt. "Does my home look like an inn to you, obaa-san? I do not take vagrants into my house; I suggest you take up residence in one of the ryokan in town." He said dismissively, and she shook her head, looking up at him pleadingly. "Please, Kazekage-sama… I have no money. All I have is this bottle of blessed sand; I have carried it for my whole life, and with it you could do great things not only for your city, but for the world."

The battle worn samurai withdrew a crescent shaped bottle from her hip satchel, holding it up for his inspection. The sand within glowed eerily in the wan light, casting a slight pallor on the skin touching it. It held his eye with ease, and he felt an unknown wrench of fear as he looked upon it, though he quickly dismissed it.

The Nidaime Kazekage of Sunagakure feared nothing.

The old woman continued, holding the bottle out to him. "If you would let me stay the night, you can have it as my payment for your kindness." He instantly sneered, sweeping his hand through the air and knocking the bottle from her grasp. "Have you seen nothing of this country? We have enough sand. I care not for the weather or your poverty; I should strike you down where you stand for your insolence. Leave my home, samurai; there is no room for you here." He snarled, pointing behind the woman as a sign that she was to leave immediately.

As the falling flask of sand hit the ground, the old woman's face fell to reflect great sadness, and blinding light exploded from the cracked bottle.

A great rushing wind galed and the howling of a thousand tortured souls roared as the light permeated every inch of the room, driving the great leader of Wind Country's ninja forces to his knees, his hands covering his head to protect himself from possible casualties. When he felt the light begin to fade he chanced a glance up, and instantly fell to ground fully in a low bow, cowering at the feet of the individual that stood before him.

He heard heavy, clanking steps grow nearer to him, and he trembled in fear. A resounding, echoing voice that pierced to his very soul spoke then, demanding attention and respect. "How you have fallen, Sabaku no Gaara… and how far you will yet." Gaara shivered in mortification, refusing to look up and meet the sorrowful eyes of the god he kneeled before. "Holy Bishamon-sama… forgive this unworthy mortal… I did not realize I stood before the greatest of the Shichi Fujukin…" Gaara muttered, his voice cracking and his syllables quaking in his mind numbing terror.

The god of war shook his great head, the halo of fire crowning his head glowing brighter than the sun. "It should not have mattered, Kazekage… there is no greater honor than giving to your fellow man; you, above all, should respect this. Yet every day you take lives instead of helping to preserve them, you live only for your own wellbeing, you refuse to fight the demon within when you are more than able to overpower it… you have caused so much misery and woe in this time of peace that even the gods cry out for vengeance, but I pleaded for your sake. I believed in you, Nidaime… and you have failed me."

"I came to you this night to test you; to see if there was even one grain of humanity in your consciousness any more. But there is none, and so you shall be punished." Gaara finally gathered his courage and looked up at the god standing over him. "Please, kami-sama… please, give me one last chance. I can change! I swear it!" he pleaded, but Bishamon shook his head again, waving his hand over the fallen bottle of sand and making the spilled dust rise and gather around one of his fingers. "This was your last chance, Gaara. The scales of the universe's justice have tipped against you, and now you must reap the consequences of your actions, and so must your subjects."

He reached down and touched his sand covered finger to Gaara's forehead, and he fell to the ground in agony as unbearable pain ripped through his body, a feeling like nothing he had ever felt before raging through him and ripping ragged howls of anguish from him as sand began to creep from his every pore, hardening, cracking, and then reforming as it covered him completely. Echoes of equal pain rang out from all over the house and resounded from beyond the walls as well, evidencing the shared punishment being administered.

Bishamon looked down on the screaming man at his feet sadly. "Know that you have caused all of this suffering, Kazekage. Look on for the rest of your days as those you should have cared for more than your own life suffer for your sins, and be ashamed. Look not into the clear reflection of any mirror and see the beauty you have taken pride in for so long. Become the monster that you truly are, and know that you alone are the only one to blame. Rise, Shukaku. Take your form in the place of the human you reside in… and never recede."

The screams intensified as the sand covering Gaara's body thickened and hardened into impenetrable sheets, black stripes and long, sharp spikes appearing along the newly formed skin of the emerging demon. The human voice was quickly ebbing, overcome with beastly roars, but the god of war was not done yet.

Bishamon made a sign with his fingers, and another, even more powerful wave of pain enveloped the body of the writhing, deformed creature at his feet. "With this curse, Sabaku no Gaara, I give you eternity to live in your humiliation. You shall resist all sickness, all disease, and you shall have no relief unless you are struck down by a blow from those you have despised so vainly; your fellow man."

The pained growls finally quieted, and the heaving body of the newly created monster trembled with the effort to stay conscious after the ordeal it had just gone through. The god's eyes were aggrieved as he looked over the scene, and, though he looked hesitant, he nodded. He then pointed a stern finger at the empty, cracked bottle on the ground. The glowing sand flowed into it again, and a few grains fell from the crack in it ominously. He uttered Gaara's salvation only once before turning away and disappearing, leaving nothing but a ghostly emptiness behind him. The creature on the ground wasn't even sure he heard what he did as he slipped into the place between sleeping and waking, but he would remember the words for many years to come. They were his only chance at redemption, his only avenue to escape his well-deserved fate…

"_But my heart grieves to punish so thoroughly, so as one last hope for this forsaken place, I offer you an escape. If you can find love for another, and earn it in return, before the sand within this flask runs out, then your true form will be returned to you and the curse on your lands broken. But if you cannot, then you shall remain this way until a human finds a way to kill you, or kingdom come."_

* * *

"Kazekage-sama, the Gondaime Hokage's messenger has arrived. Tsunade-sama does not wish for such a trivial matter to escalate into a full on war and has requested a meeting to talk things over peacefully. What is your response?"

The hot breeze that blew perpetually through the parched and barren lands of Wind Country pulled gently at the folds of the cloak that lay draped over the shoulders of the hulking form silhouetted against the night sky. A large, clawed hand emerged from the recesses of the material and wrapped around the bar of the banister the being faced, resting a heavily muscled forearm against the smooth wood.

Sabaku no Gaara glared up at the stars shining down on his rough, sandy skin, clenching his powerful fingers together with enough force to kill any living creature with ease. How he hated this form… the disgust he felt for himself only grew as each new day passed. It had been two hundred years since the night he had received his eternal punishment, and he had long ago given up on finding his salvation. No woman could stand the sight of him for five minutes, much less long enough to fall in love with him. He could hardly blame them…

He was, well and truly, a monster.

As the centuries had passed, he came to realize that he had deserved this. He hadn't changed with the lesson; he hadn't learned… he still craved the taste of blood and the sight of fear and pain and the smell of death. He didn't deserve the kindness the gods had shown him by giving him a chance at saving himself and his people, and so he was doing everything in his power to find a human being strong enough to kill him.

His time terrorizing the earth had to come to an end.

He turned around, giving the man standing behind him as bland a look as he could manage with a demon's face. "Kill the messenger and send his head back to Tsunade, then send a message to my brother, instructing him to attack the minute the package is delivered to the Hokage. I do not want peace… I want to find the kyuubi container and provoke a fight with the strongest human in the world."

_

* * *

So? Whatcha think? Drop me a line and tell me about it; I wanna know how I'm doing! Just fyi, I know that Gaara is actually the Gondaime Kazekage; I will explain my __**deliberate**__ changing of that in the next chapter. Never fear, I know what I'm doing for the most part. ;)_


	2. The First Move

_Weehoo, welcome back, my friends! Here's the long awaited second installment of Beauty and the Beast, from my head to your faces! XD Alrighty, the plan is to try to keep all of the chapters of this story about the same length as the first one was, so don't expect anything longer than five to six thousand words apiece. On a side note, I would like to thank everyone who read and reviewed; you all own my soul for making me feel so good about myself. Anywho, on we go, to read things that I write for your singular enjoyment!_

_Disclaimer: I am not the author of Beauty and the Beast, I am not the producer who made the film on which this story is more closely based, and I am not the genius who created the miracle that is Naruto. I am merely a humble fan fiction writer, stealing characters and ideas from others for absolutely no profit but the love of my readers._

* * *

Chapter Two

* * *

A new day was dawning over the secret ninja village of Konoha, the sun rising over Hokage Mountain and shining a soft, buttery light down through the deserted streets of the city. The early morning sunlight made its way across the valley that the small town sat in, uncaring of where it touched or the fact that the denizens of said town might not actually want to be awoken by the sun.

It would remain this way for a time, the light granted by the star merely indicating the waste of the day, but soon, the peace and quiet would be disturbed by the throwing back of covers, the sleepy putting together of breakfasts and outfits alike, and the reluctant beginning of a new business day, store fronts being opened and shop owners unlocking their doors.

After that, however, there wouldn't be another silent moment until late in the night. Shopkeepers loudly foisted their wares upon the people browsing along the streets, shouting the prices for pottery, fresh produce, and various knickknacks while chefs and bakers barked orders to their underlings, demanding more bread and preferably _unbroken_ eggs.

The customers themselves were almost as bad as the people they were buying from, adding their reprimands to their children and their complaints of too high prices to the general clamor while above it all, the newspaper hawkers proudly proclaimed the grand accomplishments of the ninja sector of the city, assuring the common citizens of their safety because of the wounds their protectors sustained and the bravery with which they faced their enemies.

The young, pink haired medic nin making her way down the busiest stretch of road in the city cared little to nothing for the chaos surrounding her, however, merely dodging the crowds and continuing on her way while looking over the clipboard held in her hands expertly. There was only one thing on her mind this morning, and nothing would distract her from it.

The civilian clinic needed its savior.

She paid no mind to the whispers that followed her or to the stares that she received, merely returning greetings when they were given and waving to her own friends and acquaintances where she saw them embedded in the crowds of civilians, business owners, and ninja. She deliberately ignored the weird looks that followed in her wake; she knew that nearly all of the village considered her strange. A female ninja, completely dedicated to the art of healing comrade and civilian alike, with no interest in giving up her chosen path for the life of domestic housewifery that many of her female peers had accepted…

It could easily be said that there wasn't another like her in the whole of the sprawling city.

She continued on her winding way down the street despite the attention her passing drew, dodging contact with the local floral shop owner ("Pretty flowers for a pretty, pretty girl, and at half price as well!") before finally breaking free of the surging crowds, thoughtfully dropping a few coins into a hungry looking street urchin's hands before pushing the door of the clinic open where it was situated between an overflowing display of books and an equally brimming cart of ugly, foul smelling fish.

A bell rang over the door as it closed behind her, betraying her entrance with a clear, loud ringing that echoed in the empty, white sitting room. The receptionist behind the circular desk in the middle of the room looked up at the sound, and a bright, excited smile lifted her despondent grimace high when she saw who it was that had come in.

"Sakura-sama! I'm so glad to see you; Shizuka-sensei has been asking me every few _seconds_ about the report you took home yesterday and…" Sakura cleared her throat to stop the young girl's excited clamoring, holding the clipboard in her hand up with a small smile. "Don't worry, Inari. I have the report, the diagnosis, and the treatment all taken care of. She won't be worrying for much longer."

The girl's eyes bugged out of her head, her jaw dropping, before she took a deep breath and launched off into another long winded babbling session. "Really? You did that in one night? Geez, Sakura-sama, you really are the best medic in the whole world! I mean, it's not like I didn't think that you could do it, it's just that so many other doctors have tried to pinpoint the cause of Chizuru's illness for, like, _years_, and… well, I knew that you could do it! I really did, promise! Plus, I…"

Sakura subtly rolled her eyes, scratching the back of her head and clearing her throat again. "It's alright, Inari. Really. I'm not the best medic in the world… Tsunade-shishou and that bastard Kabuto are still better than I am. And please don't call me Sama; it doesn't apply to me and makes me feel old. Now, where is that old coot that you work for? I have to give her the results I came up with so that we can begin work on the patient."

The excitable girl immediately whirled around in her rolling desk chair, pointing to the back room where a series of quiet curses were steadily streaming out, and Sakura's lips twitched up into a smile, pale pink bangs swinging around her eyes as she shook her head knowingly. The old woman probably forgot where she put her stethoscope again…

"Thank you, Inari. You've been a big help." Sakura said as she rounded the counter of the desk and made her way over to the slightly ajar door, the compliment making a huge blush rush across the girl's cheeks. "You're very welcome, Sakura-sam… san. I hope that the treatment goes successfully!" she called out as the door closed behind Sakura, and then reluctantly turned to look at the pile of papers in front of her, grumbling about paper cuts and the taste of envelopes before returning to her work.

Sighing gratefully over the fact that she no longer had to listen to the receptionist's never ending compliments and forceful conversations, Sakura turned her attention to the back of the woman in front of her, the grizzled figure bent double and digging around in a shining, wire brushed medicinal cabinet. "Confound it all, where did I put the q-tips? I'll never find them now…" the woman muttered, a scraping noise heralding something heavy being moved within the cabinet, and Sakura giggled, picking up the small canister of cotton swabs on the counter above the cabinet before tapping the figure on the back. "They're right here, Shizuka-san."

The old woman immediately rose to her full, hunched over height of 5'3", looking at the jar in Sakura's hand through her bottle cap lens glasses hatefully. "There you are, you little buggers… thank you, dearie. You never fail to save me when my old, dead eyes do." She said as she took the bottle from Sakura, setting it down beside the small set up of test tubes she had obviously been working on before misplacing the swabs.

"It's no problem, ma'am. I help where I can and how I can. But anyway… I heard that you were looking for the report on Chizuru-chan's condition; you'll be pleased to hear that I have found the crux of the problem and have an incredibly simple way to cure it." Sakura declared proudly, handing the clipboard to the intrigued looking woman and watching gleefully as she looked it over.

A gasp was torn from the woman's lips, and she looked up at Sakura with surprise before turning back to the report, leaning in closer to read it more fully. "Bacterial meningitis, you say… yes, I can see it now… all the signs are clear. Amazing… this will take mere days to disperse from his body, and he will be as good as new!" She looked away from the clipboard a second time, this time lowering it entirely with an awed look on her face. "Sakura, you are a genius. You may very well have saved this boy's life."

Sakura shrugged, smiling happily. "I'm no genius, I can assure you… but it is my greatest joy to help others and preserve life where I can. Now, if Chizuru is awake, we can begin treatment immediately. I have a new technique that I learned from Tsunade-shishou that will speed his recovery to a handful of hours at most, and…" She stopped as soon as the old woman started shaking her head, the smile drooping slightly. "What?" Sakura asked warily, and Shizuka Mitsuki placed her hands on her hips, looking sternly up at the young doctor.

"You know that I only allow you to skip out on your _forced_ weekend and vacation time at the hospital here if you don't use chakra to heal my patients, and Tsunade-sama will have my hide if I let you work today. She knows that you've spent every day of the two weeks you've had off here, and she personally sent me a message yesterday evening, forbidding me from letting you come in and help for the rest of the month."

Sakura scowled, pouting her lip out and folding her arms. "That's not fair, Shizuka-san. I'm just trying to help… what if I took another patient, and you just looked the other way? I promise I won't use my jutsu, please…" she pleaded, but the old woman remained firm. "No, Sakura. Even if there was another patient to work on, which there isn't thanks to your efforts, I wouldn't let you. You're working yourself to the bone; take some time off from being so generous and giving and watch some television or something. Kick back and relax. You work too much and too hard to be healthy, young lady, and I don't want to hear another word about it. Now, thank you for your efforts, I appreciate you working so hard to help this boy recover, and have a good day."

And with that, the old, bowed woman pushed Sakura from her office, closed the door, and locked it.

Sakura stood blinking at the front of the door for a few moments, unsure of what to do now. Tsunade had forbidden her from returning to the hospital until every second of her paid vacation time was over, Mitsuki had barred her from helping in the clinic… even the interrogation squad had refused to let her do any healings, too afraid of her mentor to even want a taste of her wrath, no matter how vital Sakura's medic skills were.

What else was she supposed to do? She didn't want to go home to the small, empty apartment she lived in; there was nothing to do there that interested her. She didn't want to go shopping, even though she needed to. She didn't feel remotely hungry, so finding a restaurant to waste time at was out of the question. It was only seven in the morning, so she couldn't visit any of her team members at their homes; they were all out at the training grounds…

A sigh of revelation slipped from between her lips as she spun around and very nearly ran through the front door of the clinic, shouting a hasty goodbye to Inari as she went. She hadn't trained with her team in over two months, due to her continually busy schedule, and she knew that her almost completely ANBU teammates would welcome her presence; they were constantly hounding her about letting her skills on the field die out by neglecting her training.

She rushed through the even more crowded than before street, avoiding vendors here and dodging wagons there as she hurriedly made her way back up the road and to the right, eventually growing weary of walking the streets and jumping up to the rooftops to speed her travel even more. Man, she couldn't wait to knock the brains out of her high and mighty boys, always bragging about the dangerous missions they went on despite the fact that they weren't supposed to talk about them.

It took little time to reach the clearing in which Team Seven always trained when traveling at a leisurely pace on the ground, but it took next to none with the speed and excitement that Sakura used to get there, feet slamming into the ground at the edge of the grassy field hard enough to create a crater three times her size.

The three men present looked unsurprised by her sudden, explosive appearance, Kakashi waving noncommittally from his comfortable perch on a tree branch, returning to perusing his ever present Icha Icha Paradise novel as soon as the movement had been reciprocated while Sai and Sasuke stopped their match, Sai's ink minotaur collapsing to the ground and Sasuke's Sharingan fading so that the two could come over to greet her.

Sasuke was the first to speak, his arms folding over his bared and sweaty chest as he stopped a few feet away. "Well look who's decided to come out and play… we would have waited for you if we had known you were coming two hours late." He said, the smirk he wore purposefully inciteful, and Sakura gave him a wan smile in return, flipping him off. "I didn't know that I was going to be coming either, but I got kicked out of the clinic and there's nothing else to do."

Kakashi made a soul felt and hurt sound from his perch, looking over the top of his book at Sakura. "Well, if that isn't hurtful, then I don't know what is. I'm glad to hear that you think so highly of your old team that we've become something that you can only pay attention to as a last resort to stave off boredom…" he said, sniffling pathetically, and Sakura sighed, throwing her arms back and cracking her spine. "You know that's not what I meant, Kaka-sensei. I just usually don't have the time for training with you guys, and I've missed it."

Sasuke snorted, elbowing Sai in the side. "Aw, Sakura's getting all mushy on us." Sai nodded sagely, pushing a handful of sweaty hair from his eyes with a small smile. "We can't allow that, can we Emo? I think that Ugly is overdue for a demonstration of what she's missed all these months." Sakura rolled her eyes, putting a hand on her hip and starting to make a smart retort, before realizing that a voice was missing from this comadre…

A loud, obnoxious, over-friendly voice.

"Hey, where is Naruto?" she asked, looking all around for a sign of his bright orange jumpsuit, and Sasuke shrugged, scratching his arm where his week old ANBU tattoo was displayed proudly. "We tried to wake him up this morning when he didn't show up for training, but he used all the furniture in his apartment to block the door and refused to let us in. Fucking dobe… Must be pms-ing."

All three men chuckled at that, but Sakura's eyebrows furrowed, worry for her friend worming into her gut. Naruto had been having a lot of problems with insecurity over the demon he housed lately, and if it had gotten so bad that he had secluded himself and was refusing to train on the day before his ANBU entrance testing, then she would need to go and set him straight.

That could wait until she beat the crap out of dear Sasuke-kun for making that remark, however…

She grinned over at her intended prey. "I wouldn't be so smug, Sasuke. At least he's got a girlfriend; we know which team he bats for. You, on the other hand… it makes me wonder how being on a team with three other guys on it has affected you." Her comment was met with a growl, Sasuke's eyes narrowing and fists clenching. "Like I need to prove my sexuality to you, of all people. May I remind you that you were more than happy to consider me as straight as an arrow not six years ago?"

Sakura scoffed at this, waving a careless hand. "That's more than enough time for you to switch teams, Sas-_gay_. I even bet you hit like a girl now; you wouldn't want to hurt any of your potential bedmates…" she said snarkily, and the answering kunai quivering in the tree trunk where her head _had_ been showed her that she had hit the right nerve. Sasuke glared up at her from where she was hanging upside down from the tree branch Kakashi was sitting on, holding herself up with only the tips of her toes. "Why don't you come down here and find out?" He challenged, his irises turning blood red while the tomoe of his bloodline spun slowly in his eyes, and she grinned in response.

"I thought that you would never ask."

Springing down from the branch onto the long grass below, she immediately ripped the sleeves from her casual shirt, throwing them and six inches of the too long skirt to the side before snatching two kunai knives from her weapon pouch, holding them both backhanded and watching closely as her opponent flashed to the other side of the field, readying himself for combat. "Are you sure you want to do this, Sasuke? You might break a fingernail!" Sakura called out to him from her crouched position, and he smirked in response, eyes flashing in the early morning sun. "Are you sure that _you_ want to do this? You might have a hard time doing your job if you're in a hospital bed yourself."

She laughed at that, twisting one of the knives in her grip in preparation for his first move. "How right you are. I'd better be careful and watch my back… of course, you would know anything about that position, would you? You don't look like the seme type." She received no answer but him springing into action, his movements nearly invisible as he rushed across the open space between them.

A grin spread across her face, and she too flung herself into the fray, speeding her footsteps and bracing herself for the first clash. She was nearing the center of the clearing, eyes locked on her smirking teammate and fingertips secretly readying a surprise jutsu for when impact occurred, when a sudden, strong gust of wind caught her unawares, whipping her hair over her eyes and caressing her bared skin gently as it passed. A very slight pull against her fingers made her look down, drawing her attention away from her mock battle and to the fact that both of her weapons were now mysteriously missing from her hands.

Suspicious of a genjutsu, she skidded to a halt and immediately used the release technique, fully expecting to receive sight of her weapons at once. This didn't happen however, and Sakura looked up at her opponent queryingly. The Sharingan wielding man wasn't paying any attention to her anymore, however, having stopped in his tracks the second that Sakura's kunai had disappeared. His narrowed and hateful gaze was directed over her shoulder, a snarl lifting his upper lip over his canines.

She turned around rapidly, searching for the perpetrator that had taken her knives, but found nothing besides the emptiness of the meadow and the shadows the trees of the forest cast. She was getting ready to turn around and rip Sasuke a new breathing hole for trying to trick her so demeaningly when she heard the dark chuckle from directly behind her, betraying the thief's location and his identity as well. There was only one man that took such pleasure in deceiving and playing with her in such a way as this…

She sighed, shoulders tensing and teeth clenching as she tried to control her rising temper. Of all the days… she really didn't want to deal with _him_ right now. With a great amount of effort, she glued a smile to her lips and turned to face the man standing behind her, looking up into his confidently smirking visage with barely veiled distaste before speaking.

"May I have my kunai back, Itachi-san?"

The raven haired Uchiha prodigy merely grinned wider, twirling the weapons in question around his forefinger while looking over Sakura's ripped training attire with a mocking eyebrow raised. "I don't see why I should give them back… as far as I'm concerned; you have no need for them. A woman's place is not on the battlefield." He intoned, pridefully flicking one of the ends of his mid-back length ponytail back over his shoulder while his ever present cohort made his appearance, leaning around his younger cousin's back to insert his helpful comments. "Yeah, fighting is a man's game. You should be at home, attending to housework and caring for your husband."

Sakura glared at him, folding her arms over her chest. "I don't have a husband, idiot." Itachi sneered down at his cousin before looking back at her, his expression becoming one that she recognized from his frequent and annoying interruptions of her life as a whole; he was about to try to woo her again. "As true as that may be…" he muttered huskily, stopping the spinning of the knives he was holding and taking a step closer to her. "That can be changed at any time. You need to stop paying so much attention to medicine and fighting and time wasting activities like charity work; the townsfolk are starting to gossip about you. They say that you are peculiar… that, at eighteen, you should already be married and with child, not pottering around the hospital healing pathetic ningen and play fighting with your friends. Personally, I agree. Your fine attributes are wasted on the undeserving masses. Besides, there are much better things than the duties of men that require your consideration…"

The "like me" that would have followed that statement went unspoken, since both of them knew that it wasn't necessary to say out loud.

Sakura resisted the urge to gag, trying to edge around the genius idol of the whole city, while her duo of teammates approached the strange gathering. Sasuke was, once again, the first to make himself heard, shoving his cousin to the side and glaring up the two inches separating his height from his older brother's. "What is the meaning of this, Itachi? We were in the middle of training, and you interrupted." Itachi immediately brushed him off, waving his hand at him dismissively while never once looking away from Sakura. "And now _you_ are interrupting. Go play with your friend, otouto; the adults are talking."

Sasuke found himself with nothing to say to that, and, though he looked like he wanted to protest, grudgingly walked away, followed by an obviously confused Sai. With all the bravado and pride that Sasuke emitted, he was obviously still in awe of his brother and would not willingly disobey him, no matter what he was being ordered to do. Satisfied that they were once again fairly alone and still happily in the middle of a discussion, Itachi took a step to the side to block Sakura's attempts to escape, fixing her with a reproving look. She sighed in response, stopping and putting her hands on her hips. "Look, Itachi-san… I can't help liking what I do. It is beneficial to the community, our society, and to me, with an added plus of making my home a better place to live, so I have no intention of stopping any time soon, no matter what you outdated and misogynistic bastards have to say about the subject."

The intention of this comment was to make him leave her alone, but unfortunately, the smirk that stretched across Itachi's face wasn't one that even looked remotely offended. "See, that's one of the things that I like about you right _there_ … so much spirit. You would make a fine mother, Sakura-koishii… such courage, such strength, such beauty… surely you must realize that you were built to bear the children of a man just as powerful as you yourself? Come; put these toys away and see to what you should be… I could show you much if you would only let me."

The invitation was one that she had been offered before, an unspoken command to accompany this man to somewhere more private where he could make her into the woman that she "should" be, and she more than knew that almost any other girl in the city would leap from ten story buildings for the chance to be in her shoes. But she had no desire to waste daylight on a pigheaded man such as he was, and immediately shook her head, backing away towards the forest and distant city behind her.

"Maybe some other time, Itachi-san. I have to go make sure my friend Naruto is alright right now…" Shisui snorted from his position behind his younger cousin, slapping his knee and laughing openly. "What, the Kyuubi brat? He's probably just off destroying innocent lives like the demon he is." Itachi laughed with him, the pair looking like cackling hyenas as they chuckled at the expense of Sakura's friend, and she put he hands on her hips and glared at them, not appreciating the cynicism. "Don't talk about him like that!" she protested, and Itachi immediately sobered, slapping his cousin over the head to make him shut up as well. "Do not make fun of her friends, Shisui. Can't you see that he is important to her?" he reprimanded, acting like he hadn't just been laughing too, and Sakura sighed in frustration before pointing her finger at them both warningly.

"Naruto doesn't deserve to be treated like he is by you judgmental people; he is one of the best ninja that this city has. He is not owned by his demon, and he never will be. He's going to prove it to you all; just you wait and see. Now, I'm sorry, but I've really got to go. Good day, Itachi-san, Shisui-san." She said before snatching her knives from Itachi's slackened grip and storming over to her friends, giving them more kind farewells before jumping up into one of the trees surrounding the field and shooting off back towards the village, eyes narrowed in concentration and heart clenching worriedly over the condition of her friend.

* * *

Itachi watched her go with amused eyes, arms folded over his chest and dark bangs swaying in the slight breeze from the speed of Sakura's passing. The fire that she possessed… every time she turned him down or stood up to him, it merely made him want her more. But she should know better than to play with someone who had mastered all forms of the flame, and one of these days he wasn't going to let her run away like she did so often. He would ensnare her, dominate her, _possess_ her… and then he would show her where her rightful place in this world was… beneath him.

"What is it with this girl? No matter what you do, she spurns you. Feh, I would just give up on her, 'Tachi. She's _way_ too willful to make for a good woman for you." Shisui said, folding his arms behind his head, and Itachi turned to glare at him before scoffing and walking off into the tall, century old trees towards the path that would lead him back to the village. "That is one of the reasons that I want her, cousin." He said, sure of the footsteps following quickly after him being those of his constant shadow. "All the other girls in this town do exactly as I want, when I want. Her daring and veracity is refreshing. Besides, there is none that is her equal among the females here; her skills are unmatched, her beauty is unrivaled, and her caring is, above all else, unparalleled. She is the best, and do I not deserve the best?"

Shisui immediately agreed, expounding on the reasons that he was more than deserving of anything that he desired while Itachi slid his hands into the pockets of his pants, striding along the well-worn trail with a confident smirk lifting his lips. Sakura Haruno would be his… he would make sure of that.

* * *

Across town from where her suitor was deviously planning his coup, Sakura was standing under the window of her longtime friend and teammate Naruto's window, preparing to jump up the five stories to the opening. He always left his window unlocked in case he needed to make a hasty escape, and it was through this same window that Sakura often made her appearances when Naruto was feeling down. Quickly running up the side of the building and hopping up to the windowsill, she slid the windowpane up silently and slipped into the barren apartment, looking around for a sign of her friend.

The boys had been correct in their assumption of the reason they couldn't force his door open… every single piece of Naruto's furniture was piled up in front of it, including the dining room table, the refrigerator, and his bed, which he was laying on and staring up at the ceiling blankly. Sakura sighed, crossing the bare floor and sitting on the edge of his rumpled covers. "If I was an enemy nin, I could have killed you quite easily." She deadpanned, leaning over Naruto and grinning down at him, and he snorted, rubbing his eyes and blinking up at Sakura sleepily. "If you were an enemy, you wouldn't have been banging around like you were. What do you want? I'm trying to sleep."

Sakura shrugged, swinging her feet up onto the bed and lying beside him comfortably. "Eh, just wondering why you're hiding in your apartment when you should be training for your ANBU examination." Naruto rolled over, stuffing his arm under his pillow and turning his back on Sakura. "I'm not going. I don't want to be an ANBU anymore."

Sakura gaped at his back, shocked. "But Naruto, this is your big chance! Tsunade-shishou promised that she would train you for becoming the next Hokage if you passed the test, and you've _always_ wanted to be Hokage!" He scoffed at this, curling in on himself. "Like anyone really wants a demon container as their Hokage. Besides, the ANBU captains have to agree that they want me to join, and Sasuke-teme's brother hates me. He'll never consent to letting me in… it's hopeless. I should just be grateful that the Elders let me be a Jounin."

Sakura sat up and punched Naruto on the shoulder, glaring at the back of his head. "I can't believe you, Naruto. You're worried about one person's opinion? Even if it took just one vote to tip the scales, Itachi is too professional to let his own opinion affect his work. He's too much of a tight ass for that kind of behavior, no matter what he thinks. And you're wrong about the people not wanting you; you've done great and noble things for the village, and we all love you. The kyuubi is a part of you, but it is not you, and the people that matter know that. You've worked too hard for too long to reach your dreams for me to allow you to quit now, so you listen to me; you're going to take, and pass, the ANBU entrance exam tomorrow, you're going to go into apprenticeship with Tsunade-shishou, and then you're going to become the greatest Hokage that has ever lived."

Naruto's back stiffened before he turned over to look at his friend, gaze hopeful. "Do you really believe that, Sakura? Do you really think that I can do it?" She smiled at him sincerely, placing her hand on his arm comfortingly. "I don't think so… I _know_ so. Now get up off your butt and come train with me! You've got an exam to prepare for!"

Morale boosted by his teammate's words, Naruto shot up off of the bed and rushed off to the bathroom, the sound of the faucet turning on and the sight of the clothes he had been wearing flying every which way a good sign that Sakura's encouragements had been effective. While he cleaned himself up, Sakura began putting all of his furniture back where it belonged, aided by her monstrous strength so that the task was as easy as if she hadn't done it at all.

Splashing sounds began coming from the bathroom just as Sakura was hefting Naruto's sofa back into its place, and between the contented hums she heard coming from the slightly ajar door, her friend started to converse with her. "So how is it that you found out that I didn't go to training? I thought you were going to be at the clinic again today."

Sakura dropped the couch to the ground, dusting her hands off lightly before going to collect his bedroom dresser from where it was jammed under the doorknob of the front door. "I was supposed to be there, but old lady Shizuka tossed me out because of some idle threat from Tsunade-shishou. After that I decided I would go train with my boys and noticed you weren't there. I was going to come find you after I kicked Sasuke's butt for being a teme when his brother came and accosted me again, and I had to abandon the fight and come here to escape him."

A sound of revelation was interrupted by a sudden hacking fit, Naruto obviously having forgotten hat his head was under the faucet when he tried to continue speaking. Once he had recovered from nearly drowning himself he continued, clearing his throat purposefully. "I noticed that you managed to say his name earlier without retching; are you finally lightening up and giving him a chance? He's obviously into you, and you probably aren't going to find a better guy than him; he's rich, a very powerful shinobi, extremely influential in the community, a key member of one of the most prominent clans in the village, very handsome…"

"Egotistical, archaic, self-centered, entirely too confident, and a bastard to boot." Sakura finished for him, scooting his dresser into place with a disgusted sneer marring her mouth into a frown. "I have no desire to be tied to that man, or that family for that matter, in any way greater than being Sasuke's teammate. It is not now, nor ever will be again, a part of my plan to become one of the Uchiha clan's possessions."

Naruto poked his head out of the bathroom to watch her as Sakura continued to move his furniture back to the way it was supposed to be, wet, blonde spikes of hair hanging in his eyes and dripping rivulets of sink water down his bare shoulders. "I guess you haven't decided to give him a chance then. It's alright; you're right. He doesn't deserve you, the baka."

Sakura put her hands on her hips, examining the room as Naruto went back to washing his hair and nodded in approval. Everything was finally back in its rightful place. She sat down in the battered and worn easy chair across from the small television, folding her legs up with her onto the chair and looking at the top of her knee. Something that Itachi had said earlier was still bothering her…

"Naruto, do you think that I'm… peculiar?" she queried tentatively, fingering the edge of her ripped skirt, and a sarcastic snort echoed from the bathroom. "You, weird? Nah. You are different, is all. You weren't meant to conform to society the way all the other girls were. Did the teme's brother say that? Don't listen to him, Sak; you'll find a man someday that doesn't want you to change for him, and that is the only person's opinion that you should care about. Besides me and they guys', of course."

Smiling gratefully, Sakura looked on as Naruto exited the bathroom in his signature orange and black jumpsuit, strapping on his weapon pouch as he walked. "Thank you, Naruto; why can't everyone else be as understanding as you are?"

Naruto shrugged, winking and giving his female teammate a thumbs up. "It's what I'm best at, besides kicking butt and taking names! Believe it! Now come on, we've got a teme to beat into next Tuesday!"

Both grinning at each other excitedly, the odd pair ran through the door and down to the packed street below, re-making their way to the training grounds while the sun carved its path higher in the sky, warming the earth and heralding the passing of time in the long honored pattern that had been followed for millennia.

If only time was what the unsuspecting citizens of the secret village had.

* * *

Senju Tsunade grumbled unhappily, reaching a hand up to try to block the sunlight from where it fell across her desk and onto her eyelids. Damn sun… didn't it know not to disturb people that had hangovers?

"SHIZUNE! Get your ass in here and turn off the sun! I'm trying to sleep!" The Hokage bellowed, her assistant peeking through the door a split second later with a reprimanding look on her face. "Tsunade-sama, no one can turn off the sun. And besides, you have things that need to be done; you don't have any time for sleeping on the job today, so no more sake for you until tonight!" she chirped, quickly collecting the bottles from where they were littering her master's desk and instead placing a large pile of documents in their stead.

Tsunade gave them one look before scoffing, thumping her forehead back down on the wood of the desk. "Go make someone else do it." Shizune rolled her eyes, placing a pen down next to the pile firmly. "No, you need to do them. You only have an hour to complete these before we are due to begin our rounds of the hospital, and tomorrow there won't be any time; you have to personally oversee the ANBU examinations."

A heavy sigh left the Saanin's lips before she reached out blindly to grope for the pen, missing several times before successfully snagging it. Once that was accomplished she pushed herself up, glaring at her aide hatefully and receiving nothing but a warm smile in return. Growling moodily, Tsunade pulled the first document towards her, scanning it quickly before writing a few notes on the bottom and turning the page, muttering under her breath the entire time. "Don't see why… so important… who really needs food? I thought the ANBU were strong… little sissies… always complaining about supplies and injuries… wimps…"

This would have continued until the desk was flung temperamentally through the wall had a masked ninja not appeared in the window, bowing respectfully from his perch as well as he could while balancing the parcel that he carried under his arm. Tsunade raised an eyebrow before beckoning him in, inspecting his mask clinically. "Rat. You were sent on the mission to Wind to make peace with the Kazakage. What was his response? Where is Wolf?"

Rat looked sullenly back at his Hokage, holding the box out to her mutely. She took it, looking it over carefully before pulling the ribbon on the top of it and opening the lid to reveal the answer to both of her questions; the severed head of Wolf was lying at the bottom of the box, accompanied by two kanji written in his blood on the top flap.

_Prepare_.

Tsunade looked up at the ANBU standing silently in front of her, slowly rising from her chair. "What does this mean, Rat? Prepare for what? What the _hell_ happened in Suna?"

He never got a chance to answer as an explosion that shook the foundations of every building within fifty miles shook the city, a cloud of dust and the haze of fire rising from the very center of town. Rushing over to the window, Tsunade looked out as more, smaller explosions rang from the same spot, pillars of smoke rising from the falling buildings.

Amber eyes narrowing dangerously, she flicked her fingers at the ANBU squad member, instantly drawing his attention. "Alert all able bodied squads, no matter what rank, to approach the site of the explosions with care and be ready for a fight. The Kazakage has denied our offer of peace and is attacking Konoha."

* * *

_Chapter two, finite! Awesome, if I may say so myself… and I do! XD I hope that you liked it, and if you would, please click that little button down there and tell me about it! Let me know so I can better please you! Anyway, until next time!_


	3. A Chance Encounter

_I have no real excuses. It's been awhile, I've been working on other projects… blah blah blah, all the usual reasons. I'm sure you don't want to hear it, so on with the show. Before warnings and ratings still apply. Now be off with you._

_Disclaimer: Don't own anything, not even my own soul. Sold that on the black market for a good pair of shoes and a not so good pair of pineapples. Never buy black market pineapples._

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

Sakura and Naruto hadn't even made it to the end of the street when the first explosion shook the city.

From where they stood, they could see the building that had been hit shudder, crack, and (more quickly than they wanted to believe) fall to rubble within seconds of the ear shattering eruption, the cloud of smoke, flame and dust that rose from the ruins rising to block the sun with ominous finality. They both stared, blindsided and horrified, before being rocked almost off their feet by a second detonation, only yards from where the first building fell.

"What the hell is going on? Are we being attacked?" Naruto shouted over the din of alarms, growing screams, and smaller (though no less destructive) explosions that permeated the previously pastoral air of the village once he had righted himself, only having barely kept from falling over by grabbing on to a signpost, but Sakura could only shrug in response, her eyes narrowed on the clouded and flaming horizon.

"Unless it's a training exercise gone horribly wrong, we have to assume so. Come on; they'll need our help," she yelled in return, shoving herself away from the wall she had fallen against, and, without looking back to see if Naruto had followed, took off at a sprint towards the site of the destruction, joining the other converging ninja who were responding to the call of the Hokage.

The wreckage they arrived to witness was like nothing they had ever seen.

The broken facades of the buildings themselves were sight enough to behold, rubble and debris and beams of wood thrown about as though they were Styrofoam, but more terrible, and far more disturbing, were those that had arrived before them. Bodies already littered the ground like horrid, macabre holiday decorations, bent into poses that were too impossible and painful to be natural, and in the middle of it all, exuding cold malice and savage, cruel madness, was a huge, slumped being shrouded in a cloak of shadows and malcontent, the only clue as to its identity being a pair of emotionless, merciless slitted eyes set in a misshapen, balding head.

Their approach was met with this being's full attention, its quick eyes and surprisingly agile movements enabling it to avoid any attempt at a sneak attack that they could have launched against it. It considered them for a moment, lingering the longest on Naruto, before shrugging its massive shoulders, shifting its stance, and then speaking.

"Is this all that is left of Konoha's shinobi? Two children, of negligible strength, who cannot even look into the face of their enemy without quailing? I am disappointed; I have heard so much of the will of fire, and have only met weakness and cowardice," it said in a low, gravelly voice, speaking in a way that most would use for taunting, but Sakura got the feeling that the creature was genuinely unhappy; there was something in the flat tone it used that suggested true disenchantment.

Naruto didn't pick up on the subtle nuance, however, and instantly bristled, pointing a threatening finger at the creature among the rubble and baring his teeth.

"Don't you _dare_ talk about my home like that! You haven't seen anything yet! The number one ninja in the village is here now, and you're going _down_!" he bellowed exuberantly, visibly enraged but, as always, excited for the chance to fight and prove himself to the world, and the shadowed figure he was shouting at tilted its head, as though intrigued by this presentation of indignation, before shrugging indifferently.

"So you say. I have yet to judge that for myself, though. Anyone can boast and brag of their skills, but until battle is begun, their true prowess is never shown and the mark of their skill is forever unknown," their opponent lectured, a wisdom that only age and hard, cruel experience can bring layering his level, toneless words, before raising a clawed, ungainly looking hand to gesture at the open air in a waving motion, as though shifting their conversation into unimportance and distant memory.

"But time is wasting. We need not spend any more time chatting; all the necessary monologues are done. Now, there remains only one question… are we going to stand here all day, or are you going to, as you said, "take me down"?" he prompted placidly, provoking and yet not all at once (Sakura couldn't quite put her finger on it, as she hadn't been watching the thing for long, but she got the distinct feeling that this creature wasn't capable of emotion), and Naruto roared in response, unsheathing a pair of shuriken and leaping across the fallen buildings faster than a blinking eye.

Sakura continued to do as she had been while the other two present had palavered, one of the things that she was best at: keeping out of the way, observing her enemy, and waiting for the optimal moment to strike. She had found this to be one of the best ways to be useful to those that she fought alongside, as it distracted the enemy and kept her from getting in the crossfire (none of her boys would ever forgive her, or themselves, if they hurt her on accident while in battle), but as _thi_s encounter progressed, each of Naruto's strikes more vicious and each of his opponent's more calculated, she began to doubt her habits… and fear for Naruto's life.

This thing… whatever it was… was too strong, almost inhumanly so.

Multiple times she almost made a hasty decision, wanting to jump in to spare her friend any more injury than he had already sustained, but every time that she was about to Naruto sprung back from his slump and gained even more power, his best attacks and most clever ruses only growing as time passed. She couldn't help but be proud of him, even when he began to glow with the chakra of the kyuubi; she never approved of it when he did, since he was liable to lose control at any time when held under its poisonous influence, but she understood the situation was dire, and that this power was a part of him.

His home, the lives of all its citizens, and his honor were in peril; he would do anything to safeguard them.

And so it went on, the back and forth of a battle between two skilled shinobi, for so long that the ninja that had been behind them now stood watching the spectacle along the edges of the battlefield, all looking on the demon container that their village housed and, Sakura always hoped, silently venerating him for embracing the danger of using the power he had at his disposal, despite the all too real threat of losing his mind to its draw like so many others had.

As caught up in the fight as they were, though, none of them were prepared for what happened following a particularly powerful attack from Naruto.

"Enough," the creature muttered, a twinge in his voice giving the impression of approval (though Sakura wouldn't ask to be quoted on that with any certainty), before a sectioned, barbed tail rose from the back of its robe, arched over its head and, as quick as a viper's strike, launched at Naruto's stomach, a viscous, pale green liquid dripping from its tip.

_Poison_.

"NO!" Sakura screamed as she sprinted over the broken walls and shattered floors as quickly as she could, desperate to deflect the oncoming danger. That poison could be anything from a simple draught of arsenic to a mixture of all the most lethal ingredients in the world, but she was certain that it was deadly; they were in battle, after all, and he had killed others.

She couldn't lose another friend. Neji's demise had been hard enough to accept, and he had hardly been her best friend.

Time seemed to slow down as she ran, the scorpion sting nearing ever closer to the unprotected center of Naruto's defense (how many times had she told him to guard his center? He would never learn…) while she lagged behind by too far a distance, but she pushed onward despite the impossibility of the situation, staring with the hate of a slighted friend at the enemy as she gathered chakra in a clenched fist, determined to bring the creature down whether Naruto was felled or not.

No one tried to hurt her precious people and lived. _No one_.

Crossing her fingers and hoping to all the gods that cared to listen, Sakura reached Naruto's side with one final, desperate leap, shoved him away violently (the tail had been so close that she could smell his clothes burning from the acid of the poison), and then smashed both of her fists into the mysterious being's face, sending him flying away into a still erect wall a hundred feet away so hard that the structure exploded like all of its counterparts had, obscuring the sight of the enemy's landing spot completely.

She didn't care about that though, not at the moment (some of the ninja that had been watching were approaching the site; they could make sure that the monster was down); Naruto was still lying on the ground where she had pushed him, unmoving and disturbingly quiet and… and… turning _blue_.

"No… no, no, no…" Sakura whispered under her breath as she rushed to Naruto's side, dropping to her knees and rolling him over, and then gasped; she had not been quick enough after all. The small, but nevertheless present hole in the center of his bright orange jumpsuit stood out against everything else in her range of vision, and the blood, and poison, that seeped from the minute injury in the middle of the hole made her head swim.

She quickly took account of his condition, checking his pulse and breathing distractedly (his throat was closing and his heartbeat slowing drastically; she needed to do something, and _fast_) before ripping his shirt open and laying her hands over the injury a few inches above his seal, praying to the slowly suffocating man in front of her for the strength needed to do what she had to.

"Don't you die on me, Uzumaki Naruto… Hinata will never forgive me if you do…" she muttered, channeling chakra into her hands, and then focused fixedly on the wound in front of her, letting the green glow seep into the incision and through his infected bloodstream, singling out everything that didn't belong and stimulating his essential autonomic reflexes as quickly as she was able.

It was lucky that she had been right next to him… the combination of nightshade, aconite, and the smallest trace of milkweed, though a strange way to kill someone (as it would only cause a sleep deep enough to fool most medics into thinking the victim was dead), would have taken effect within minutes of its injection.

Her luck ended much too early, however, because just when she had drawn all of the poison that she could from his system (any that was left would be overpowered by his immune system within seconds), there was an explosion behind her, blowing cart sized chunks of concrete and wood across the plaza, and along with it the flying bodies of four of the men that had gone to look for the supposedly defeated enemy's body, each falling to the ground with a heavy, sickening crunch.

Startled, apprehensive, and still concerned for Naruto's condition (he wasn't breathing as well as he should be, neither was he stirring; had she overestimated her skills?) Sakura stood, turned on the spot so that she was standing in front of her fallen comrade, and looked on as, from the smoking rubble, shredded cloth, and splintered wood, rose a red-headed, thin, medium statured man, surprisingly young looking and, disturbingly, staring right at her.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, standing her ground and inspecting the man as the other ninja present rushed to attack him, and was thus privy to witnessing the sheer, raw power of this newcomer: he barely even glanced at his opponents as he dispatched them with uncaring and flippant flicks of his fingers (his unsettling and bland brown eyes hadn't left hers since he had risen from the ruined husk of the ugly, slumped creature that she had punched; had he been inside of it?) the shinobi attempting to stop him jerking to a halt when gestured at, clutching at their throats, and then falling without a sound. Others turned on their friends with fear in their eyes, striking them down while at the same time crying for relief from their actions, and still more were flung through the air like leaves on the wind, landing, crumpled and broken, in heaps over a hundred feet away.

Sakura really didn't want to believe it, but it couldn't possibly be her imagination; every time that they were struck with compulsions she glimpsed, from the corners of her eyes, the gleam of the afternoon sunlight on strings so thin they were almost invisible.

She had heard of such shinobi before, but had never met one, either in friendship or in battle… this man was a puppet master.

The last man, a nin she had seen more than once at the hospital but didn't know the name of, fell to the ground in a heap, his own hand choking the life out of his body, and when he had a threatening quiet fell, the only sounds the crackling of the still burning fires, the moans of a woman lying a few feet away who was drowning in her own blood, and the crunch of the gravel beneath the feet of the unaffected, unimpressed, and still approaching ninja.

Sakura swallowed, unspeakably afraid and trembling slightly. It had happened so fast… he had killed over thirty shinobi in less than a minute without even touching them. She would be next to no match for him, even with her formidable strength; she had surprised him before, had gotten a lucky punch, but after seeing him fight, she knew she could not compare. But she could not, and _would _not, leave Naruto alone for this man to finish off, and so she clenched her fists, widened her stance, and leveled as steady a glare at the man before her as she could manage, calling on all her reserves of chakra to aid her when he made his move.

She was going to die, but she was going to take a good chunk of this guy with her.

Sakura need not have worried, however, because, after absentmindedly flicking a speck of blood from his plain black cloak, the red-haired man stopped, appeared to give her a once over (what more did he need to see? He hadn't once looked away from her), and then, in a voice that did not belong among the bloodshed that he had caused, he spoke.

"You are brave, woman. Brave, bold, and unexpectedly strong; no one has been able to defeat Hiruko, not in his many years," he uttered, his light, dulcet, wooden voice appreciative and acknowledging, before finally looking away, glancing down at the still prone Naruto with a gauging and observant eye. He stared at him for a long moment, as though lost in thought, and then looked back up at Sakura, brand new consideration in his gaze.

"You are educated and experienced in the ways of healing as well; you removed my poison before it could take root. Only one who has studied poisons with great diligence could have known there were three different toxins, though there appeared to be only two of any significance. Perhaps the nin of this village are not so helpless after all," he commended once more, disturbingly calm and unthreatening, and Sakura shot him a apprehensive look before glancing down at Naruto worriedly, suspicious of trickery. Her opponent made a noise of dismissal at her motion, folding his hands into his sleeves comfortably. "Worry not, kunoichi… he will not die. You did well, and worked quickly; he will only sleep until he recovers from the trauma of the foreign substance."

Sakura was not comforted by this, though, only growing more wary and defensive.

"And why should I believe you? You've already killed all these men and woman; what would one more death be to you?" she shot out cynically, scared for Naruto's life and not daring to believe the best in case everything fell apart, but the man only smirked softly (Sakura got the impression that this was the closest that he would ever get to a smile), complacent and unoffended.

"And what would there be to gain from lying? It is not my errand to dash the hopes of young women, mysterious though your hopes may be. But this is a pointless conversation; I speak the truth, whether you believe me or not, and it is only a matter of time before you discover this for yourself. What I am more curious to discuss is why you care at all. This man is a demon; a creature meant to feared and reviled, not cared for and defended. You saw him changing; you know it to be true. The others did not move to help him… so why did you?" he queried, seeming to be sincerely interested in her response, and Sakura snarled, stepping back to stand protectively in front of Naruto.

"Don't you _dare_ judge him! He isn't a demon, he's a _man_, and one of the best I've ever known!" she shouted, bristling over the much visited but always defended subject of her best friend's plight. "He may house a demon, one that he works with when he needs the power to overcome the enemies that threaten his home, friends, and family, but that does not define him! Uzumaki Naruto is brave, and true, and determined to be the best ninja this world has ever seen, and god damn if I'm going to let _anyone_ keep that from him!"

Winded, Sakura took a deep breath, honestly surprised that she had managed to give almost a whole monologue without being attacked once; the stoic, blasé man seemed far more interested in what she had to say than fighting her. This worried her greatly, as the she had always found the calm before the storm nerve-wrecking, but she saw no sense in charging someone who she knew could overpower her, and thus went on, forcing calm into her words so she would be more convincing (she wasn't sure why she was bothering; it's not like she could convince the man not to kill Naruto through words alone).

"I will stay by his side, holding him up when he is weak and defending him from those that undermine him and, if the day comes that I need to die so that he can see that future for himself, I will do that too, because he would do the same for me, and anyone else he's ever known, in a heartbeat. So don't you question why I'm here, standing between you and him; it's where a friend is supposed to be," she stated with as much determination as she could muster, fire in her eyes and fierce pride in her convictions, and the red haired man tilted his head, tapping a finger against his arm thoughtfully.

He remained silent for a long, tense moment, the sirens in the distance continuing to blare obnoxiously and the shouts of more approaching ninja a cacophony that she hoped was not too near (she didn't want anyone else to die today…), staring blankly at her as though he had never seen anything like her, before blinking, dropping his chin consideringly, and speaking.

"A man once told me that the demons within us are what we are, that we can only become more and more like our vices despite our struggles against them, and should therefore give in and enjoy them regardless of the consequences. I have held this as scripture ever since, as I am bound to trust this man implicitly… but you say differently, and the firmness of your belief leads me to doubt," he informed Sakura, an empty sort of skepticism in his tone. "What is it that makes you so certain of your argument? How can you trust someone who could turn on you at the slightest provocation? Why would you give your love, even if it is only in friendship, to a man who embraces the presence of demon, and yet claims to rise above it?"

His words were inflectionless and bald, an open-ended question one would speak to the wind when alone, but Sakura felt great significance in his words, as though he was questioning her on a totally different subject and trying to be coy with his meaning. She could see no reason for him to say such a thing to her, could think of nothing that would make him think she wanted to play riddle games with him, but she couldn't shake the inkling at the back of her mind…

Was he asking her about someone else?

She wasn't going to get any answers to that, though, knowing that she didn't have enough time to find out everything about this strange encounter, and so, instead of inquiring after his interest, answered his question in a low, quiet murmur, looking down at Naruto's unconscious but calm form as she did.

"Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that he houses a demon. He has his lows, just like anyone else: he gives into temptation, he gets scared… he even worries that he won't be able to measure up to the goals that he set for himself. He's only human, a mortal being just like you and me, and just like anyone else, he needs the support of his friends," she revealed, a small smile evidencing itself on her lips as she spoke, before looking back up at her opponent, blunt assurance in her gaze.

"Whatever the circumstance, and no matter the cost, I know one thing: _everyone_ deserves someone who believes in them."

The red-haired shinobi nodded slowly with his eyes on the ground, as though mulling over her words carefully, before looking back at her with finality, unfolding his arms and gesturing at Naruto.

"He is lucky to have a friend such as you, woman. You are wise for your years, and your heart speaks far louder than your words; one day, I think we can all count on you to use your beliefs and bravery to see us though the night that has fallen on the land," he said enigmatically (hope and flattered bashfulness rose in her chest; did he really think she would be that important someday?) and then flicked his fingers at her, her limbs snapping to her sides without her consent.

She had known that it was going to come to this, but she had made a rookie mistake; she had let her guard down, and now had lost her chance at retaliation. God, she was so _stupid_… Kaka-sensei was going to have her head…

"You bastard… well, you've won fair and square. Kill me and be on your way," she snapped, ashamed that she had been caught unaware and had been lured into such a state with idle compliments, but the man shook his head from his unmoved spot, flicking a glance down at Naruto's prone body for a split second before locking gazes with her.

"Not today, kunoichi. You have work yet to do, and one day, I will reap the rewards of your deeds myself. We will meet again, and you can exact your revenge for this at that time if you wish, but right now, it needs to appear as though we never spoke in this manner. Your associates would be suspicious. Forgive me; this will hurt," he muttered, seemingly contrite but so blank that she wasn't sure, before raising his pointer finger and forcing her to prod herself in a pressure point in her neck, instantly sending her into unconsciousness.

* * *

Sasori caught the young, pink haired woman before she fell to the ground, laying her gently over the kyuubi container after making sure that she had not hurt herself irreparably; she had quite a punch, after all, and could have broken her own neck just from that single jab. He remained crouching beside the two friends for a moment after, brushing a light finger over a lock of hair that had fallen over the girl's eyes almost absentmindedly, before standing, removing a walkie-talkie from a pocket in his cloak, and holding down the transmitter button.

"Change of plans, Kankuro… my stasis poison was neutralized before it could take effect, and another administered dose would kill him. Find a good hiding spot somewhere in the village, close to his home if you can manage, and stay there; we shall simply have to wait a little longer for the kidnap. Oh, and send a message to Temari… she will want to know that the girl we've been waiting two hundred years for has finally come."

* * *

_Dammit… I wanted there to be more plot points in this chapter, but there was so much __**talking**__… oh well. We'll get there, and it won't take another two years to do so. I swear. Anywho, drop me a line, tell me what you thought; I know my writing style has changed a smidge since I last wrote for this story, and somebody might not like it. Tell me yes or not or maybe or coconut. I don't care, just TELL ME. I'm such a review whore. Thanks for reading, those that did, and see you next time!_


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